Coup in Thailand

Thailand has had a new coup de etat! That reminds me that I was in Hat Yai during the last coup, February 23, 1991, when Chatichai Choonhavan, Mr "No Problem!" was overthrown by a military group that called itself the National PeaceKeeping Council, for the time before they started shooting student protesters. Has it really been 15 years already?

At the time, I didn't think it odd that every TV in the city was tuned to a general giving a speech, interview, or press conference of some sort. Later I was told that there had been a coup, and that "Thailand is like Iraq now!" The sight of a general in uniform explaining himself was similar to the daily appearances of Saddam Hussein, after he had invaded Kuwait and before it was recaptured.

By the way, Saddam was a popular t-shirt hero across the border in Malaysia at that time. In those days, Malaysia welcomed visitors with huge posters of a hangman's noose over the point of entry and a message that death was the penalty for drug possession, rather than the feel-good TV spots of sun and surf that have run 12 times an hour on CNN for the last 7 years.

Anyway, then as now, the coup procedure is to neutralize the PM, put some tanks out on the street, and most importantly, seize the organs of state power: the TV stations. As elsewhere, once you are on TV claiming to be the government, undisputed, then you are the government. There is still the matter of groveling and crawling up to the king, to try to get a pass from him. But this is mostly a formality. He'll let you off with a warning.

It's funny that Thaksin was in New York at the time, preparing to speak to the United Nations as a powerful regional leader. How embarrassing. If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere. He should have resigned when he resigned. Maybe the imaginary plots to kill him were real after all.

Thaksin (toxin) reminds me of other billionaire CEO Presidents, Berlusconi, and Bush. They share that smell of pop-fascism, money, corruption, spoiled rich boy arrogance, and decay. Good riddance! There are worse things than the extraconstitutionality of a military government. The most effective dictator is an elected dictator. If the military runs an honest election, less corrupt and quicker than Thaksin was doing, to resolve the political uncertainty, then the proof will be in the tapioca.